Under the Night Sky
by Josh Blake
Summary: 3 months after the fall of Cocoon and Hope is living with Serah, Snow and Lightning in New Bohdum trying to make a new start. But now that the world isn't ending, Hope has bigger problems; his feelings for Lightning. Snow decides, New Bohdum can't truly be called home until it has it's own yearly event so he creates the New Bohdum Bonfire. AU after end of 1st game. Slightly OOC.
1. Chapter 1

**It's been a long time since a put anything on here, but I have a badly broken leg, lots of time, and lots of feels now Lightning Returns is out in Japan so here is my story, enjoy!**

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**Chapter 1: Sunsets and Bonfires.**

Hope dangled his feet over the edge of the pier slowly kicking backwards and forwards in the temperate water. The sun was slowly disappearing beyond the edge of the ocean on the horizon and the deep oranges and purples reflecting in the water from the sky completely distracted the silver haired boy. It had been three months since the fall of Cocoon and things had moved pretty quickly since then, with Hope being whisked along with everyone else trying to make a new start.

Snow had been the first person to find the cove with a perfect beach that had reminded him of Bohdum so much, and everyone agreed; all things considered it was a more than decent place to set up New Bohdum. The small town was recreated almost exactly like the original, down the long pier running out into the ocean that Hope now found himself on. The town of Bohdum held mixed memories for Hope, it was after all the very last normal night of his life he'd had. Sitting looking up at a different sky watching fireworks exploding into a myriad of colours, with his mother. He frowned trying to bury the awful memory of his mothers' death.

Though, he thought, in the end things could have been much worse, they had defied the odds and changed their fate. His friends and former L'Cie, whom now all resided in this same picturesque little town. Snow and his fiancé, Serah, Sazh, his son Dajh and last but not least Lightning. That was not all of them, Hope glanced over to the towering pillar of crystal that held up his former planet, with Fang and Vanille stuck right at the very core of it after sacrificing themselves.

Hope was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the footsteps of an approaching person, and jumped when Lightning sat beside him.

"Hope, what are you doing here by yourself?" Lightning fixed him with a quizzical look.

"Just thinking." He replied, trying not to stare too much at how the setting sun bounced off her pink hair and made her blue eyes sparkle, as if they had waves of their own inside.

Lightning accepted his response and didn't press any further; instead she slipped off her boots and lowered her legs into the water.

"I can't believe how much warmer the water is here than it was at home." Lightning stated.

"I never really had the chance to go swimming before, there weren't many beaches in Palumpolum. I can't imagine you going swimming very often Light." Hope inwardly laughed at an image of a stony faced Lightning standing in the sea.

"I never used to go swimming, I just liked to do exactly what we're doing now, sit quietly with my feet in the water and think." Lightning closed her eyes and leant back.

Hope began fidgeting, feeling a little uncomfortable at the present situation. He really couldn't find the words to express how beautiful she was to him. The first time he'd laid eyes on her in the Vestige, she had terrified him but after time he had come to respect her. These feelings had slowly morphed from respect to something more intimate.

He shut off his train of thought, before he drove himself mad, he was 14 and she was 21 there was no chance it could ever work. And even if he was the right age, why would she want to be with him, she had seen him at his very lowest ebb and it still made him feel ashamed.

"You do realise I know you're staring at me?" Lightning said with her eyes still closed.

"I...uh...erm." Hope spluttered as his face went bright red, from being caught in the act.

Before the situation could get any more embarrassing for Hope a third voice called out from the edge of the beach.

"Lightning! I sent you out to get Hope and you just collapsed next to him, I swear you're both as bad as each other!" Serah feigned anger, then her face broke out into a big smile.

"Give me a break Serah, I've been working since 5am, we had to move some civilians who got lost in the wilderness" Lightning turned to look at her sister who as dressed in a simple white t-shirt and black skirt "and by the looks of things you've been doing nothing all day, again."

"Hmph! Snow said the school is almost finished, so once that's done I can start teaching again. Anyway, you're just stalling for more time; dinner is ready, so both of you better hurry before Snow eats both of your meals!" Serah stuck her tongue out.

Lightning sighed and rocked back onto her feet picking up her boots and offering a hand to Hope whose face had returned to its normal complexion. He took her hand and she pulled him up onto his feet.

"Alright, we're coming." She exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.

Serah turned and started making her way back along the beach to their house. As Hope still hadn't heard anything from his dad he was staying with Lightning, Serah and Snow in a house at the edge of the beach.

It got quite crowded at times and Hope had to sleep on the sofa, but he didn't mind really, they were all like a big family and he enjoyed not being alone.

"Ugh I hate when you have wet feet and the sand sticks to them." Lightning complained.

Hope couldn't help but laugh, causing Lightning to look at him with a quizzical expression.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing you moan about normal things." Hope explained.

"We'll you'll hear it more and more now we're under the same roof, I like to moan about things." Lightning said in a deadpan tone.

"Oh I know you like to moan, Light, but I've only ever heard you moan about the world ending or having to fight some 50 foot tall deranged turtle on Pulse. Moaning about sand just seems funny after what we've been through." Hope shook his head.

Lightning glanced down at him and smiled and it almost knocked Hope over, she was so beautiful, but he couldn't do or say anything. He returned the smile, a little sadly, which Lightning picked up on and would have questioned him about, were it not for the fact that Snow came barreling round the corner and draped both of his arms around their shoulders.

"Sis, Hope, how are you doing?" He said with a cheesy grin.

He was wearing a pair of brightly coloured baggy shorts, flip flops and a dark shirt; the warmer climate on Pulse meant he rarely wore his trench cost anymore.

"We were doing fine, thanks." Lightning slipped from under Snow's arm and sped up.

Hope was less fortunate and couldn't shrug off the larger man as easily, and remained in his trapped until they had all sat down at the moderately sized kitchen table.

"Really Serah, soup, again?!" Lightning sighed and swirled the spoon around the bowl.

"Hey you try and cook a five star meal without electricity! Things will be better once we get some power. Plus Snow loves my soup, don't you?" Serah glared at her husband.

"Uh yeah it's great!" Snow replied with as much conviction as he could muster, causing Hope to Laugh/

Swiftly trying to change the subject Snow cleared his throat and spoke, "You know, I've been thinking, with everything that went on and how we all came out of it, we deserve some kind of celebration. We've all been working so hard since the fall of Cocoon that I think it's time we had a night off."

"For you, that's actually not such a bad idea; what did you have in mind?" Hope replied.

"Thank you…..wait what do you mean '_for you'?_" Snow's face scrunched up.

"He means you couldn't plan a night in on your own without catastrophe usually, so before we agree to anything, what is this great idea?" Lightning chimed in.

"We should have a giant bonfire on the beach; make it a yearly thing, like the fireworks back home. Everyone can make something, it'll be great!" Snow said excitedly.

"I actually think that's a good idea." Lightning said almost surprising herself.

"Yay, it's going to be great!" Serah exclaimed grabbing her fiancé's arm.

After they had sat talking and finished dinner. Serah and Snow drifted off to bed leaving Lightning and Hope alone. They both sat on the bright orange sofa that Snow had acquired that took up most of the room in the small living room.

"You never told me what you were doing staring at me earlier on." Lightning said, looking out of the window.

Hope couldn't believe she had been holding on to this question to ask him, and he began to frantically try and worm his way out of the situation.

"You had a leaf stuck in your hair, I was going to pull it out, but then Serah turned up and it must have fallen out on its own on the way here." Hope finished, his sentence sounding more like a question than a statement.

"Right." Was all Lightning replied giving him a small smirk that curved half of her lips up.

Hope was now fighting the urge to stare at Lightning's lips and was failing miserably. Since everything had calmed down, his feelings had grown to the point that he struggled to look at her without blushing anymore.

"You know Hope, you can tell me anything, if there's something bothering you I'll try and help." Lightning offered.

Hope almost bit out a sarcastic laugh and imagined her face if he told her what he was really thinking.

"It's nothing important." His insides clenched at the lie, knowing that, to him, there wasn't anything more important.

"Ok, well I'm going to bed" Lightning stood up and ruffled Hope's silver hair, "Goodnight Hope."

"Goodnight."

He watched as Lightning lazily walked to her room and closed the door behind her, and then lay back on the sofa, the last thing he thought before he drifted off to sleep was of the pink haired girl smiling at him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello there and welcome to the second chapter of my story. Thanks so much for the reviews and views on the first part. And thanks for the well wishes about my leg. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 2: The First Official New Bodhum Bonfire**

It was a couple of days after Snow had first suggested the idea of the bonfire and since then he had been going round the town making sure everyone knew about it. They would all make something, food or entertainment, and bring it along to the celebration. Despite himself Hope was actually looking forward to the event, it would be a chance to just have fun for the night. Building a new town on a new planet had a certain amount of stress involved in it, and this gave everyone the chance to take a night off.

As for what he was going to bring; Hope had decided to try and catch some fish and fry them as he had absolutely nothing else to bring apart from himself. So far it was not going well; he had found a piece of wood and tied a bit of string with a hook Sazh had made from an old bit of metal. He was using stale bread for bait, and thought this was where he was probably going wrong.

The bonfire was later that day and he really needed to sort something to bring. He couldn't decide whether he was so determined to bring something because it gave him a way to pass the time, or as a way to show Lightning that he was much more independent and could take care of himself now. The empty bucket by the side of him told a different story, and he kicked out at it sending it into the waves.

He retrieved the bucket and sulkily made his way back into town, kicking the sand in front of him as he went. Just as he was about to enter the house something caught his eye, in the line of trees behind the house were a couple of trees full of coconuts. Hope smiled to himself, maybe he wasn't going to turn up empty handed after all.

He darted into the house where he could smell Serah cooking something that strongly resembled soup, again. He shook his head and retrieved his Aerowing boomerang, then headed back outside.

It took a couple of throws, but soon it was raining coconuts so he piled them up and decided to break some for their milk and keep the others whole to eat later on.

An hour later he stared at his handy work, he had three full bottles of coconut milk and a bag full to take to the bonfire. He smiled and sat down in the beach wondering what everyone else was going to bring.

"Hey Hope, any luck with the fish?" Sazh and Dajh were walking along the beach.

"Not quite, I went for coconuts instead, they put up less of a fight. How about you guys, have you decided what you're bringing?" Hope inquired.

"Oh we've got something planned, right Dad?" The young boy had a glint in his eye.

"That's right kid, you and I have a big surprise for everyone else!" Sazh said winking.

"Alright, keep your secrets." Hope laughed.

"You'll see soon enough, it starts in a couple of hours." Sazh said.

"Yes, I can't wait!" Dajh shouted and as he did the tiny Chocobo chick that followed the pair everywhere leaped out of the young boy's hood and chirped along with him, like it was as excited as he was.

"Guess we should start getting ready, see you later Hope."

Hope waved the pair off and brushed the sand off his shorts, he smiled up at the shell of Cocoon.

"I hope you're okay up there dad; wish you could be here tonight."

Since they had been living in Pulse the refugees from the ruined world above had been arriving daily, with new settlements springing up all over the place. This kept what used to be Psicom and the Guardian Corps busy, making sure people were safe from the natural wildlife that got too friendly and wandered into towns every so often. Hope's dad still hadn't arrived, but there were lots of people who still lived above so he wasn't overly concerned yet.

Hope decided to get ready and passed through the doorway nearly walking straight into a flying frying pan, but ducked just in time for it to sail past him onto the beach.

"All I said was it's a special night and maybe something other than soup would make it even more special, because I know how good of a cook you are." Snow was desperately circling the table in the kitchen.

"Oh so now you're saying my soup isn't special?" Serah's face was completely red as she searched for another kitchen appliance to launch at Snow.

Hope burst out laughing at the look on Snow's face; he had seen Snow stand down false gods, giant monsters and a military laser focused on killing him, but he was absolutely terrified of his much smaller fiancé and her raging anger.

"What are you laughing at Hope!?" Serah roared, latching him with an ice cold stare and for the first time, Hope could clearly see that both her and Lightning shared more than the same hue of hair.

Just as he was thinking he had gotten himself into a mess the older Farron sister appeared.

"He was just laughing at something I said Serah," Lightning grabbed Hope's arm and dragged him away from the kitchen whilst shutting the door behind her she shouted "have fun!"

"Thanks Light, I don't think I've ever seen Serah so mad!" He held back the bit about Serah reminding him of Lightning, he didn't want the wrath of both sisters on him.

"Oh she's always had a temper, it'll pass soon."

There was a loud bang from the kitchen followed by a howl of pain from Snow.

"Probably." Lightning added, with a wry grin on her face.

"It's almost time for the big event, have you got anything lined up to take with you?" Hope asked.

"Nope I got the bonfire together and collected all the wood so I'm exempt; I've done my bit for the evening."

Lightning stretched her arms over her head and her tank top lifted slightly showing her stomach. Hope almost collapsed and spun his head to look at anything else, and suddenly noticed that the clock on the wall was a lot more interesting than he had ever realised before.

"I err, should go and get ready." Hope managed.

Lightning simply nodded and went to sit down on the sofa. In truth Hope could tell she was tired; helping with all the new arrivals and scouting out new areas suitable for people to live was dangerous and tiring. He scowled wishing there was something he could do to help, but decided that was for another day.

Though he didn't have a bedroom of his own, he shared cupboard space with Snow, for what little items of clothing he now owned. They had managed to find enough clothes and pack them before they had moved down to Pulse, but he was growing fast, soon he'd start having to share with Snow; he imagined himself in a bandanna and a trench coat and shuddered.

Hope jumped into the bathroom and had a quick shower; say what you want about defeating the Fal'cie, thought Hope, but the biggest miracle he'd ever seen was how quick people had got running water set up here on Pulse. The hot water ran down his back and flattened his silver spikes against his head.

He dried himself with a towel and shook his hair so that it formed the usual pattern of looking like carefully sculpted bed head. He picked out a dark crimson T-shirt, a pair of black shorts and slipped on a pair of flip flops.

Everyone else was still getting ready so he made his way to the bonfire on his own. He gazed up at the unfathomable number of stars in the sky and thought that, even though they were further from the sky down here in Pulse, the stars seemed closer.

On his way to the bonfire he retrieved the bag containing the coconuts and bottles of coconut milk, then went over to where a crowd of people were already beginning to gather by the pile of wood that was waiting to be lit.

Lebreau and Gadot were sitting in the sand, and Hope could hear the man with the flame coloured hair booming some joke that made no sense. Yuj and Maqui were directing people over to a row of table that had been set up for people to place the items they had brought. Hope could see piles of extravagant food and bright coloured drinks, but decided to hold onto his bag for the time being.

He started shifting his feet, making patterns in the sand wishing the others would hurry up, and no sooner had he thought it than the giant hand of Snow crashed onto his shoulder. Snow wasn't wearing his bandanna and Hope could visibly see a lump on his head, guessing it must have been Serah's handy work

"Ready to get this party started?" He exclaimed, clenching his fist and smiling in his usual fashion.

Serah and Lightning appeared behind him, and Hope noticed the younger girl seemed much more cheerful, smiling at him as she took Snow's hand and led him over to the tables.

Lightning was wearing a blue tank top and a white skirt, with nothing in her feet. She noticed Hope looking down and explained.

"I only have my boots and didn't want to wear them. What's in the bag?"

Hope wanted to tell her that he didn't care what she wore, she always looked effortlessly beautiful. Then realised she had asked him a question.

"Oh err, coconuts." He gave a nervous laugh.

"I wouldn't worry about it; Yuj couldn't find anything so brought an empty bottle in case people didn't have anything to drink out of." Lightning said shaking her head.

The pair got closer to the crowd in time for Snow's crowning moment of glory; he jumped up onto one of the tables, which looked like it could barely take his weight, and began talking to the crowd.

"Welcome guys to the first ever Official New Bodhum Bonfire!"

The crowd cheered and clapped, which only encouraged him further.

"I know things are hard at the minute and we've all gone through a lot over the past few months, but tonight is about celebrating being with friends and the people you care about, so have a good night!"

With that Snow leapt down from the table and lit the big pile of wood, causing a giant flame to leap into the sky making shadows dance on the floor. Snow and Serah rejoined the pair and they all sat down watching people laugh and talk while some others danced.

"You know, that wasn't a bad speech _Mr. Hero_." Lightning drawled out the last few words.

"Thanks Sis, and I did mean it, what's better than spending a night with the people you care most about in the world?" He replied, flashing a grin.

"Stop it, you're gonna make an old man cry!" Sazh and Dajh had appeared behind them and joined the group.

"Hey guys." Serah said jumping up and hugging them both.

"Yeah well..." Sazh looked embarrassed but Dajh just had a big grin on his face.

"So when are we going to see this big surprise you've got lined up for us?" Hope asked casually.

"Big surprise? What big surprise?" Snow asked in a confused tone.

"That's sort of the point Snow." Lightning replied smiling.

Hope zoned out of the conversation for a minute as he was stuck looking at the light of the flames flicker across Lightning's pale skin, and her blue eyes flash.

"Oh just be patient man!" Sazh threw his hands up in the air.

"Come on Sazh, what is it? Pleaaasseee?" Serah put her hands together and fluttered her eye lashes at Sazh.

"Oh fine, you lot are worse than kids! Pass me the bag Dajh." The older man finally relented.

His son passed him the bag and he unzipped it to reveal a giant firework.

"No way! How did you get that?" Snow jumped up and patted Sazh on the back almost knocking him over.

"Well you know I see a thing or two lying around when I make trips to pick people up from Cocoon. It was just lying there, right in the middle of this fancy square. Looked like they were having some kind of celebration themselves when we decided to turn the power off on the planet!" He explained.

"I guess we gave a few people quite a fright." Lighting mused.

"I think that's a bit of an understatement!" Hope had finally come out of his trance.

"That's old news now, what I want to know is when you're going to set it off?" Snow asked steering the conversation back to the firework.

"Well I was saving it, but now the cat is out of the bag, we might as well let her go now. What do you say Dajh?" He turned to his son who give him the thumbs up.

Sazh readied the firework, while Snow once again did a public service announcement so the crowd wouldn't miss it. Sazh nodded, happy he had got it at the right angle and lit the fuse, before backing away.

Hope stood next to Lightning, both of them craning their necks following the small rocket on its trajectory to the sky. For just a second the sky remind inky black then an explosion of colour filled it, as if someone had thrown a hundred different cans of paint on a blank canvas. There were vivid greens, golds, blues and reds and even though they'd all seen a firework before, this just seemed special. The crowd was silent as the remaining shower of sparks fell from the sky, and then everyone returned to what they were doing before.

"Well that did not disappoint! Thanks Sazh!" Snow said.

"Don't mention it! You know the last night I saw a firework was the night before the purge started. Hopefully this one brings us better luck!" Sazh replied.

"It wasn't all bad; it brought us all together and gave us this new home to live in." Lightning expressed.

Home; it was something that Hope had never really accepted, even with his Mum and Dad in Palumpolum he had always felt uneasy. He wondered, glancing round at all his friends and lingering on Lightning if he really could come to think of this as his home.

Just as he was lost in thought Lebreau walked over.

"Hey, in the long run I want to get my bar set back up here, but for now, enjoy. We're done for the night, great idea Snow, everyone has had a great time." The dark haired girl smiled and tossed a bottle to Snow.

"Thanks, I'm sure we'll manage to find a good home for this." Snow shook the bottle, swilling the clear contents.

"What is it?" Serah inquired.

"This is the last of the Cocoon rum we swiped from that fancy bar before we moved down here." Snow explained proudly.

"We were about to move to a new planet, and the most important thing you thought to swipe was booze?" Lightning said in an exasperated tone.

"Desperate times, right? I didn't know if we'd ever get the chance to have any again! But if that means you don't want any Sis..."

"Whoa whoa I never said I didn't want any." Lightning cut Snow off.

"You do the honours then." He smirked tossing her the bottle.

Lightning unscrewed the lid and took a quick swig from the bottle, but as soon as she had, she started coughing and spluttering.

"Ugh that stuff is evil!"

"You're just a lightweight, pass it here!" Snow said laughing.

Not for the first time that evening, Snow Villiers found a young girl with pink hair launching an object at his head, fortunately this time he was up to the task and caught it before having a gulp himself.

"Wow, you were not kidding, it really is terrible. Haven't we got anything we could sweeten it with?" He asked.

Hope then suddenly remembered the coconut milk in his bag and pulled a bottle out.

"Here, try this."

Snow poured some of the milk into the rum and swilled it round, watching as the liquid went cloudy. He took one last look, and appearing satisfied went for another taste.

"Oh man that's even worse!" He half choked and laughed.

"Pass it back here." Lightning said, catching the bottle.

"Sazh do you want any?" She offered the bottle.

"No thanks, looks like I'll be turning in for the night." He whispered, pointing down at Dajh, who had fallen fast asleep.

"I'll see you all tomorrow; this was a really great idea Snow." With that he bid all of them goodnight and carefully picked up his son without waking him and carried him back towards the town.

"Do you want to try any Serah?" Lightning asked her sister.

"What kind of example are you setting to your younger sibling here Light? Trying to corrupt me with alcohol. I'm ok thanks." Serah joked.

Hope waited for her to ask him but she poured the bottle back and took a long drink. Her eyes lit up and she looked down at the bottle.

"Hey this isn't half bad!" She exclaimed

"Whatever you say Sis!"

Snow had leaned back and was looking up at the sky with Serah in his arms.

"Can err, can I have some Light?" Hope inquired.

"Pfffft I might be your friend but I'm not allowing a minor to begin a journey into drunken depravity on my watch!" She said fixing him with a grin and taking another swig.

"Especially as this is quite strong..." Lightning seemed almost surprised.

Hope didn't think she would have given him any, so he copied Snow and lay on his back, still feeling the warmth in the sand from the now slowly dying fire. Most of the people had begun to call it a night and head back, and soon they were the last four on the beach.

Hope could frequently hear Lightning taking gulps out of the bottle as they all lay there in silence, until a hiccup escaped from Lightning's mouth.

"Have you had too much of that Sis?" Snow inquired snidely.

"Hmmmm...remember when that time we were at the bottom of the lake...the crystal shiny lake...Bresha, lake Bresha. I punched you in the face and you fell over, then I punched you and you fell over again!" At this Lightning burst into a fit of laughter.

Hope sat bolt upright and stared at the pink haired girl with wide eyes, he'd never seen her like this before.

"Yeah, I kinda remember it hurting quite a lot." Snow replied sheepishly.

"What's she talking about Snow?" Serah asked in puzzlement.

"It happened right after you turned to crystal, we had a bit of a disagreement that's all."

"A bit of a disa...a disagreement? You're coat and fashion is a disagreement. I'd call that more like fun." Lightning started laughing again.

"Err I think it's maybe time we head back, we can clear this up in the morning." Snow suggested, lifting him and Serah to their feet.

"I'll be...be with you in a bit." Lightning said still lying on the floor.

"You two go back if you want; I'll make sure gets home in one piece." Hope said.

"Thanks man!" Snow yawned and patted him on the back.

As Snow and Serah wandered back to the house, Lightning lifted the bottle again only to find it was empty. Disappointedly she placed the bottle on the floor and lay back down.

"Are you ready to head home Light?" Hope asked sitting with his hands tucked around his knees.

"Hmmmmm okay."

Lightning stood up and instantly began to sway from side to side, so Hope walked over and put her arm around his shoulder, instantly blushing at the contact. The progress back to the house was slow, with Lightning having to stop every few metres to prevent herself falling over, but eventually they reached the building.

Hope led her to her room and she folded onto her bed, and the boy turned to leave, but she grabbed his hand.

"The moon makes your hair shine, it looks really nice, in fact you're just a really nice person." Lightning said, piercing him with her blue eyes, even in her current state.

Hope's face went the colour of a tomato.

"Th-thanks Light. Well err, goodnight." He pulled his hand away and shut the bedroom door behind him.

He flopped onto the sofa and stared at the ceiling for a very long time, trying to work out if that had just actually happened. Maybe, just maybe it had, and with that he fell fast asleep, the happiest he had been in a long time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again, here I am with another chapter. I just wanted to take the time to say thank you for all of the reviews, it means a lot to me that people are enjoying the story. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 3: Bad News**

_1 year later._

Hope awoke on the sofa, rubbing his eyes, as the sun streamed in through the blinds; it was going to be another beautiful day here on Pulse. Hope didn't feel like smiling about the weather in his present state however, as memories of the night before flooded into his consciousness.

He and Lightning had been arguing, again, over the fact that he wanted to join the Guardian Corps and help with settling people into their new existence on Pulse.

_"Absolutely not!" Lightning banged her hands down on the kitchen table._

_"I'm not a kid anymore, it's my birthday next week and I'm going to be 16. Serah can't teach me anything else and you can't expect me to just sit around here for the rest of my life." Hope shouted back._

_"You are most definitely still a kid. It's dangerous our there Hope, how many times do I have to tell you that?" Lightning sighed placing a hand over her eyes._

_"Oh because I've never done anything remotely dangerous before, nothing like going on a suicide mission to kill the power source of an entire planet." Hope replied sarcastically._

_"That was different; we had magic, you don't know how to fight, or tend to an injury if something went wrong out there." Lightning shot back._

_"Then teach me! You weren't born as a soldier Light, even you had to start somewhere." Hope was getting more desperate._

_"I don't have the time to get you up to scratch and do my job properly! You're not joining, and that is final!" _

_"Help me out Snow, tell her she's being stubborn!" Hope turned to the blonde man sitting daydreaming._

_"Oh hey, don't get me involved in this," he suddenly sounded flustered, "oh and really Hope; tell Lightning she's being stubborn? That's like telling water it's wet."_

_Lightning emitted a low growl, "Not helping Snow!"_

_"I just remembered, Yuj asked me to help him move his piano, see ya!" He quickly exited the house._

_"Yuj hasn't even got a piano!" Hope shouted after him, but he was already gone._

_"Listen Hope, I'm doing this to try and keep you safe, I don't want anything to happen to you." Lightning's tone softened._

_"I don't need you to protect me; eventually you're going to have to except that I can take care of myself." _

_And with this Hope turned on his heels and stormed out if the house, with no direction in mind other than to get away from Lightning. He could hear her protesting, but he kept on walking, slamming his feet down into the sand as he went._

_He spent all day alone meandering up and down the beach, as his anger slowly ebbed away and a feeling of helplessness set in. He missed dinner purposefully as he didn't want to have to face Lightning again so soon, but eventually the sun set and he decided to return._

_By the time he got back everyone had already gone to bed, and as he made his way through the house, he could hear Snow's earth shaking snoring. On the kitchen table was a small meal of pasta and chicken; everyone had been relieved when power had finally been supplied to the area and they could regularly eat something other than soup._

_As Hope lifted the plate to take it to the porch and eat, he noticed a small note fall from under it. It only contained one word; 'Sorry' in carefully scripted handwriting that he knew belonged to Lightning. Great, he thought, now I feel even worse, I was the one being melodramatic and she apologises._

_He sat down and began to eat; his mind was so preoccupied that he didn't really notice the taste of the food. In a part of him deep down, he knew that Lightning was only saying the things she was, because she did care for him, she was worried he would get hurt. But he didn't want her to worry about him, he wanted her to be proud of him and realise that she could rely on him no matter what the situation was._

_Regardless, he hadn't meant for her to feel guilty, so he resolved to apologise first thing in the morning, even if he hadn't totally given up on the idea of joining the Corps just yet._

As he stretched out and swung his legs onto the floor, he noticed it was still quite early, so he should be able to catch Lightning before she set off for work. He didn't want this feeling hanging over him all day, so it would be good to clear the air.

He walked into the kitchen, smelling coffee and silently praising whoever had brought that down from Cocoon with them. Hope expected to see Lightning standing with her mug and a piece of toast staring out of the window as she did on virtually every morning before she got ready for work, so he was surprised to see Serah there instead.

"Morning Hope, you're up early." Serah said cheerily, raising her mug to her mouth and drinking.

"I could say the same for you, usually you're the last up!" Hope replied smiling.

"Being asleep in a crystal for a long time does that to you; I always used to be such an early riser as well." She frowned, then shrugged.

"Do you know where Lightning is?" Hope asked, yawning.

"You just missed her, if you hurry up you should be blue to catch her." Serah replied.

Hope decided to have a look on the beach, so he walked out of the front door, scanning either side of him for a sight of Lightning. It didn't take very long, she wasn't far away, she appeared to standing talking to Sazh; both of them had very serious expressions on their faces. Hope decided that even if they were talking about something important, he would make his way over to them and wait while they finished.

Lightning had her back to Hope as he walked over to the pair so he couldn't make out from her face what kind of mood she was in. As he approached them Sazh caught sight of him and he grimaced, looking straight to the floor. Lightning must have said something just out of earshot and Sazh nodded in response, after which Lightning slowly turned around.

She looked even paler than usual and had a downcast expression on her face; whatever they had been talking about must have been bad news.

"Hey Light, I err just wanted to say sorry..." Hope began, but Lightning stopped him mid sentence.

"Hope, we've, erm, we've got something to tell you." She could not hold his gaze.

"We might want to go somewhere a little more private?" Sazh offered glumly.

Lightning didn't say anything, instead she just nodded and took Hope by the arm, leading him back the way he had come to their house, with Sazh in close attendance.

Hope really hadn't got a clue what was going on, but he had a rising sense of dread that he couldn't quite shake. Hope sat down at the kitchen table while Lightning paced up and down and Sazh lingered by the window.

"We have to tell him eventually." Sazh said.

Lightning sighed and turned to face Hope, who was trying to hide his fear, but his eyes gave him away.

"Hope you know that Sazh makes trips to Cocoon to either pick up people or to search for supplies?" She didn't wait for him to answer "Well up until recently he was only allowed to fly around the capital near where we landed coming back from Pulse. However today, he decided to try and fly somewhere else. That somewhere was Palumpolum, and what he found wasn't good." Lightning was really struggling to carry on speaking.

"It was totally destroyed, half of it was covered in crystal the other was a smouldering ruin. The reason I wasn't allowed to go there is because no one survived, that means, I'm sorry Hope, you're dad didn't make it." Sazh concluded, his last few words were barely audible.

Somewhere Hope had known that with each passing day this outcome was becoming more and more likely, but to actually hear it confirmed was crushing. He never had an easy relationship with his dad, but to lose both of his parents by 15, it was like a nightmare. He felt emotions bubbling up in him that he hadn't felt in a long time; fear, hopelessness and a huge wave of sadness.

"Hope I'm so sorry." Lightning reached across the table to take his hand, but he snatched it away.

The silence seemed to stretch on waiting for someone to break it, which unfortunately for Snow was him. He strode straight into the kitchen, totally oblivious to the current mood and clapped his hands together.

"Who's looking forward to the bonfire tonight?"

Hope couldn't take it, he didn't want to fall to pieces in front of everyone so, while Lightning and Sazh were staring incredulously at Snow, Hope got up and ran from the kitchen.

Hope could feel his eyes stinging with tears, but he didn't care, he'd held it together in front of everyone else. He wasn't really paying attention to where he was going, and eventually stopped under the shade of a tree, completely out of the way.

He fell to the ground and sobbed quietly by himself looking up at the ruined world where he used to live. A dark voice inside his mind kept saying it was his entire fault, he had played a part in causing Cocoon to fall; he should never have left his dad in their house.

He rocked back and forwards on the ground wondering where this left him now. His friends had allowed him to stay with them, but it wasn't fair to think that would be the case forever. Now things were settling down in New Bodhum, Serah and Snow were starting to talk about the wedding. Lightning had all but said the day before that she didn't have time to look after anyone but herself with how much work she had.

His biggest fear was ending up alone and that eventuality was rearing its ugly head more than ever at this present moment.

Hope didn't know how long he sat in the same spot trying to blank his mind; eventually he began to hear the noises of people making their way to the bonfire. He couldn't believe it had been a year since Lightning had been drunk and spoken to him in her room, the event itself and the happiness he felt at the time seemed so alien and far away now.

Hope guessed that the others would probably have made their way over to the bonfire, so he got up, brushed the sand off himself and began walking back. The lights were off in the house, but there was a note fastened to the door.

_Hope we've looked everywhere for you, if you do come back before us, Snow has made us go to the bonfire saying you just need some time alone. If you feel like coming to join us it'd be great, if not we understand. Light._

Hope carried on into the house and walked into a bedroom, realising as he fell onto the bed it was Lightning's. The pillow smelled of mixed berries like her hair and he laughed darkly at the circumstances which had led him to finally lie on this bed; fate wasn't kind.

Hope couldn't take sitting alone in a dark empty house anymore, so got up and headed towards the roaring flame at the end of the beach. He was beginning to have second thoughts the closer he got, seeing and hearing everyone having a good time.

At the last second he stopped and headed for the pier instead, sitting on the end looking out into the dark waves. Unbeknownst to him, he had been spotted, and before long he heard someone sit down next to him.

Hope turned and saw Lightning looking at him sympathetically.

"You know you had us worried; we've been out all day looking for you." She said.

"Sorry, I just needed some time alone." Hope was surprised how steady his voice sounded.

"You don't have to deal with this on your own; we're all here for you, whatever you need."

"It's not fair on you, how much longer can I expect you to keep being there for me?" He replied, still looking out at the ocean.

Lightning sidled over to the silver haired boy and put her arm around him pulling him closer to her.

"Forever, you can expect me be there for you forever; for as long as you need or want, whichever runs out first." She proclaimed.

"What's going to happen to me now though?" He could feel himself falling apart.

"You're going to carry on living with us of course. What, did you think we were just waiting for your dad to show up so we could dump you? Not a chance, you're part of our family now Hope and it isn't so easy to escape from whether you like it or not." Lightning explained as if there was any other option.

Hope felt one long sob rack through him, part of him was happy for what she had said, but the pain of losing his dad was still prevalent.

"It's going to be okay Hope, we'll get through this, just like we have with everything that came before; with each other." She squeezed his shoulder.

"I'm tired Light, I'm tired of you seeing me like this; of falling to pieces. Why can't I be more like you, strong and able to deal with these things?"

"Showing you're emotions isn't a weakness Hope; both Serah and me went through the same thing losing our parents when we were young. We dealt with it in different ways; she was more vocal whereas I bottled everything up. I didn't open to anyone until I met you, because you reminded me of myself so much. It's okay to be vulnerable every so often; this doesn't make me think any less of you, I just want you to feel better again." She finished.

"Thanks Light."

Hope leaned into the girl, allowing himself to be weak for just one more night and thankful that he had someone in his life that cared about him as much as Lightning did. They both sat staring at the moon, sitting on the pier leaning into each other.

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**Hope (see what I did there ;) ) you enjoyed the chapter, just one little note if you like marrying up music and literature like I do, the song I was listening to on repeat whilst writing the last bit of this chapter is from the extended soundtrack from the first game called Hope_PfNer3 its easy to find and a really great piece of music. Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello readers, sorry for the slightly delayed update, blame a visit to the hospital :/. Once again I'd like to take the chance to tank everyone who has read and reviewed my story. without further adieu, please enjoy the chapter.**

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**Chapter 4: The Wedding**

**1 year later**

"What do you mean they only had lavender table cloths?! I wanted lilac, now they won't match with the bridesmaid dresses!" Serah threw her hands up in the air,

"I'm sorry Serah, that's all they had." Hope apologised, looking at his feet.

"Ah well it's going to be dark by the time we sit down so hopefully people won't notice." Serah sighed.

Hope didn't want to risk telling Serah that there was virtually no difference between lilac and lavender, now knowing the full extent of the girl's propensity to explode with anger.

The house had been driven mad over the past few weeks as everyone rushed to get everything together in time for the ceremony. New Bodhum had become a thriving community with lots of shops springing up; it was a good job there was a lot of free space on Pulse.

Snow and Serah had finally set the date for the wedding 6 months earlier, and everyone was extremely happy for the couple. Not much had been done to prepare, and then all of a sudden it was approaching very fast, which had set Serah into a panic.

Serah had become maniacal in handing out tasks to anyone she came across, quickly finding a dress that she had refused to let anyone see except for Lightning. She had taken Lightning along to pick the dresses for the bridesmaids, of which there were only two; Lightning and Lebreau.

Snow had picked Gadot as the best man, who was disappointed that he had to wear a suit to the occasion. Snow had decided on a classic black suit and Hope had gone along to get fitted for a suit at the same time. In the end, the owner of the shop couldn't wait to get them out of the place; he was so tired of Gadot complaining. By all accounts, the dress fitting hadn't gone much better, with the person in the shop terrified of Lightning.

The spare moments that Hope had been able to relax over the past weeks, he had spent wondering about what Lightning would look like in a dress. It was so different to her usual image that he was struggling to come up with anything. In truth, he had welcomed having something to do, with Lightning still standing firm over the Guardian Corps.

Snow had picked their wedding to happen on the same night as the annual bonfire, so instead of cancelling it, the bonfire would be incorporated into the wedding. They would get married and have the reception outside on the beach, which had taken some convincing to get Serah to go along with.

Eventually she had agreed, and set about getting things ready for the big day. Tables would be placed along the beach with food that anyone could help themselves too rather than having a set meal and the drinks would be taken care of by Lebreau, who had finally opened her new bar on the beach.

Hope and Serah were currently the only ones in the house; Snow was out setting up the tables and chairs on the beach, whilst Lightning had mumbled something about a few towns having some trouble with some wildlife, though Hope had his suspicions that she had just said this to escape Serah.

Hope was still looking at the floor, when a knock at the door snapped him out of his daydream about him and Lightning dancing at the wedding. Serah answered the door and squealed with excitement.

"Are you Miss Farron?" The voice at the door asked.

"For a little bit longer, yes!" Serah replied.

"Where would you like you're delivery of petals?"

"Oh just leave them by the door thanks, I've got someone who can take care of them."

Hope was just a second too slow in realising that this someone was him, and while he was searching for an escape route, Serah cornered him.

"You weren't trying to sneak out like everyone else were you Hope?" Serah asked accusingly with her hands on her hips.

"Of course not, I err dropped this pen." Hope laughed nervously bending to pick up the random pen on the floor.

"Good, because I need you to take that sack of flower petals and start placing them around the seats and tables." Serah said.

"I'll get right on it." Hope shuffled out of the house resigned to his task.

He picked up the sack of petals, which was easier said than done, as it weighed quite a lot, and began to make his way to the seats that were placed on the beach. It took him a long time and several stops before he arrived, dripping with sweat and panting.

The seats were white deck chairs that had been placed symmetrically in rows in front of a makeshift pedestal that would act as the altar. Hope picked out a handful of the purple petals and cast them into the wind, watching as they flew into the sea. He let out a sigh, shaking his head wondering if he dumped all the petals on one spot, would the wind do the rest of the work for him.

Hope decided that it really wasn't worth the hassle that would come his way if he did half a job, so set about scattering the petals around the chairs. It took a few hours, but in the end Hope was pleased with the outcome as he sat and looked at the scene in front of him; the white chairs contrasted nicely with the colour of the petals and the view of the ocean.

As Hope was admiring his handiwork Snow walked past holding a table and placing it by the side if the chairs. Hope had never seen Snow looking so stressed; it seemed planning a wedding was a lot harder than leading a revolution against the Sanctum.

Snow wiped his head and walked over to Hope, joining him on the ground, groaning as he did so.

"I see Serah has got you working hard again," Snow said.

"Yeah, no offence, but she's turned into a monster this past week," Hope replied.

"Oh man, tell me about it. I don't think I've ever worked as hard before in my life!" Snow groaned.

"So the big day is tomorrow, are you excited? Nervous?" Hope inquired.

"It's been so long since I stood by the side of the fireworks in Bodhum and asked Serah to marry me. So much has happened and so much has changed, that frankly, I'm just thrilled that she still wants to go ahead with it."

Hope had never heard Snow talk with any self doubt, or with anything less than his loud bravado, so he was quite taken aback by the thought that Snow had doubted whether he and Serah would ever get married.

"If the destruction of a planet and both of you being turned to crystal can't stop you, I'm pretty sure you're destined to be together." Hope replied.

"Thanks, you're right, guess I am a little bit nervous. All I've got to do now is survive tonight." Snow said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Why what's happening tonight?" Hope asked in puzzlement.

"Gadot, Yuj and Maqui said there was no chance I was getting married without having a bachelor party, so they made sure to book lebreau's bar just for us."

"Oh I see; well it shouldn't be too hard, just don't go too mad on the drink, because for all our sakes I do not want to see how Serah would react if you didn't turn up on time tomorrow." Hope shuddered at the thought.

"Will do; I best be on my way, I'm supposed to be at the bar in an hour. See you later, oh, actually I won't, I'm staying at Gadot's place tonight because I'm not supposed to see Serah until tomorrow now." Snow jumped up and waved goodbye, heading towards the town.

Hope sat up and walked back to the house to see if Serah needed anything else doing, but when he arrived he found he was alone. At least he thought he was, as he headed to take a shower he saw Lightning sitting on her bed glaring.

"Hey Light, what's the matter?"

Hope asked walking into the room, but quickly saw what the problem was, as hanging up on the cupboard was a lilac coloured dress with a frilly design on one of the shoulders.

"I can't wear that, look at it." Lightning said through gritted teeth.

"It's just for a few hours, plus at least you don't have to wear a suit in this heat, I think I'm going to pass out tomorrow!" Hope tried to lighten the mood.

"Fine we'll swap. I. Am. Not. Going. Out. In. Public. Like. That." Lightning emphasised each word.

"Just think, it's for Serah, plus I'm sure you'll look great in it."

"Right. Well I'm going for a walk; I need to get out of the house for a bit." Lightning sighed, resigned to her fate.

Hope watched as Lightning dejectedly walked out of the room and had to bite his hand to stop himself from crying with laughter. It was like someone had given her a death sentence, even if he had to admit that the dress was not something he could ever have imagined her wearing.

Now he really was alone he took a quick shower and rummaged in the fridge finding some leftovers from dinner the night before and wolfed them down; who knew flower arrangement could be such an arduous job?

The sun had gone down by the time he had finished eating and cleaned up; a yawn escaped his mouth and he decided to have an early night with tomorrow promising to be a long day. He stretched out on the sofa and before too long he drifted off to sleep.

He awoke looking round the room, which was dark, so it was still night time, and wondered what had disturbed him. He heard a faint tapping and looked at the window almost falling off the sofa when he did. Outside the window was a face pressed against the glass; great he thought, we're being burgled.

Hope was just about to go and wake Lightning up when he realised he recognised the face; it was Gadot, and he was beckoning Hope to come to the window. He knew that the window in question made a loud noise when it opened, so he quietly walked over to the door, glancing at the clock and seeing it was 4am.

Hope exited the building and softly shut the door behind him, walking round to where Gadot was standing.

"Hope, we got a big problem." Gadot's whisper was like most people shouting.

"Keep it down!" Hope hissed "What's the problem?"

"Well you know we were at the bar tonight, well we might have given Snow a bit of a strong concoction and now we can't get him to wake up!"

"That's the problem? I'm sure he'll be fine in a few hours, just let him sleep it off." Hope yawned.

"But he drank it at 9 o'clock; he's been passed out for seven hours!" Gadot exclaimed, counting the hours in his fingers.

"What did you give him?" Hope sighed.

"A bit of everything in a single glass; you've got to come and help, Serah is going to kill us." The man pleaded.

Hope shook his head and motioned for Gadot to lead on, following still half asleep. When they arrived at the bar Hope couldn't help but laugh; Snow was passed out spawned on a chair while Yuj stood slapping him in the face shouting at him to wake up.

"So what do we do?" Yuj, Maqui and Gadot chimed all at once.

"He just needs a shock, something to wake him up."

Hope walked over to the chair Snow as planted on and pushed it backwards; he expected the bang to snap Snow out of his stupor, but comically he just collapsed backwards in a heap.

"Okay, that didn't work as well as I'd planned." Hope said.

Over the next hour they tried various methods to try and get a response from Snow, including holding his nose, punching him regularly and screaming in his ear. Hope looked at the clock and saw that their time was running out, it was going to be light in another couple of hours and Snow would need to start getting ready.

They all sat down deflated unsure of what to do next, when Hope had one final idea.

"Guys grab him and follow me!" He shouted springing up.

The trio carried Snow and traipsed after Hope who was walking towards the ocean.

"Well this is it; chuck him in." Hope ordered.

They complied and sent Snow sailing through the air into sea, who crashed into the waves like a boulder. A few seconds passed and Hope was about to go in thinking they'd drowned him; but just as he approached the sea Snow exploded through the water.

"WHAT AM I DOING HERE?" He roared spinning wildly around.

"Sorry boss, it was the drink, you wouldn't wake up." Gadot explained.

Snow looked like he was going to punch the other man, but just fell back into the sea laughing.

"You guys can handle it from here; just please, make sure he gets there in one piece." Hope said.

"Thanks so much Hope, you saved us! Don't worry we're taking him straight back." Yuj said while the others nodded in agreement.

Hope slipped back inside and couldn't hear any noise; relaxing he looked at the clock and went to the sofa to have a bit more sleep.

It felt like he'd only closed his eyes a second before someone was violently shaking him.

"Wha? Where..." Hope stammered and rubbed his eyes.

"Hope! Wake up! Hope!" Sazh shouted, as Hope's eyes adjusted to the light.

"What's the matter?" He asked, still a little sleepy.

"You overslept; the wedding starts in an hour!" Sazh replied.

Hope's eyes darted to the clock and he saw it was 1pm; struck into action by fear he jumped up and ran to the bathroom. Lightning and Serah had already gone on ahead, leaving him the freedom of the house as he crashed and banged around the place getting ready.

He returned to the living room, seeing Sazh properly for the first time since waking up, whom was dressed in a charcoal grey suit.

"Wow! You look pretty suave." Hope whistled, finishing his tie.

"You don't look so bad yourself kid." The man returned the compliment.

Hope as wearing a classic black and white suit with a silver tie. Now that he was ready both men swiftly exited the house and made their way over to where the event was taking place.

People were just starting to take their seats when they arrived, and they quickly slipped into their own on the front row. Snow stood at the altar with Gadot at his side, both looking a little worse for wear, but there, which was the main thing.

No sooner had Hope just got comfortable than the familiar music began playing and everyone around them stood up. He saw Snow's eyes light up as he caught sight of Serah, and when she walked past he had to admit she looked beautiful. Her dress was quite simple, with gold trim, but it really suited her.

As amazing as Serah looked, Hope's attention was soon diverted to her sister and he was both amused and dumbstruck at the same time. He could immediately tell that Lightning had made some last minute alterations to her dress; appearing to have cut off the frilly shoulder piece, making it a single strapped dress and leaving her left shoulder completely bare. Hope had never seen anyone or anything more beautiful in his entire life, he wished he could remember the image of her following Serah down the aisle with the sun shining through her hair, forever.

They all took their places at the altar and the vows began, but Hope wasn't paying much attention to them, he was utterly captivated by Lightning. He snapped out of it just in time to hear the couple say 'I do' and kiss causing all the guests to burst into a cacophony of applause.

Hope joined in, and a feeling of happiness washed over him; that against all the odds Serah and Snow had got their happy ending. It gave him some encouragement that maybe he could achieve his own one day.

The couple made their way over to a makeshift dance floor that had been laid over the top of the sand and the band began to play a soft melody, which they danced to slowly, only looking into each others' eyes. Hope had never seen either person happier, and looked across to see Lightning wipe a hand across her eye; Lightning in a dress and crying on the same day, surely that was two of the four signs of the apocalypse Hope thought.

The song finished and once again the crowd clapped their hands together, before the band began another, more upbeat song. Several people standing on the fringes of the dance floor walked onto it and started dancing, including Sazh who looked like he was massively enjoying himself.

After a bit more dancing it was time for the food, so Hope grabbed a plate and helped himself, piling it high, reasoning that he more than deserved it after averting disaster the night before.

After everyone had finished eating, it was time for the best man speech, which was strange to say the least. Gadot laughed at all his own jokes, which wouldn't have been a bad thing, if anyone had laughed along with him. Snow just sat and shook his head as his friend made a fool out of himself.

The cake was brought to the head of the table and got a few gasps off people; whoever had made it was seriously skilled. The cake was an exact miniature replica of Cocoon and the crystal spire holding it in place. Hope thought it seemed a shame to cut up something so fantastic, but enjoyed his piece all the same.

As the afternoon wore on the sun began to dip and the bonfire was lit, ensuring the party would go on well into the night. The band was still playing with people laughing and dancing, adding to a fantastic atmosphere.

Hope finally got a chance to congratulate Serah and Snow in person resulting in a tearful hug and thanks from Serah for all of his help setting the day up. Snow also pulled him into a bear hug smiling and whispered into his ear,

"I owe you."

Hope just smiled and nodded, before letting other guests have their moment with the couple. Hope scanned the party for Lightning, eventually spotting her sitting on a table next to single male guest; Hope chuckled seeing Lightning get more angry by the second.

As Hope approached, Lightning's face rose a little and she stood up walking to him.

"Hope, mind if we go somewhere a bit quieter? I need a break from the crowd for a bit."

"No problem." Hope replied, following her.

They sat down on the beach on a rise just overlooking the party and Hope could feel Lightning relax a little.

"I see you made some adjustments to your dress." He observed.

"Yeah, Serah wasn't happy, but there was no way I was wearing that ridiculous frilly thing." She replied, still sounding a little glum.

"Is something the matter? I thought you'd be really happy today?" Hope asked.

"Oh I am, I really am happy for Serah and Snow. It's just; oh it doesn't matter, it's not your problem." She said, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

"Light; do remember what you said to me a year ago? That you would always be here for me; well I'm always there for you to, if something is wrong, then you can tell me." Hope said quietly.

"It's stupid really, but everyone has been staring at me today like I'm a freak, because I'm wearing a dress. I know I might not do it regularly, but that doesn't mean I don't want look nice on occasion; I really tried today and the only looks I get are of incredulousness." Lightning's lips formed a small frown.

Hope was biting his tongue so hard he was pretty sure he was going to cut it in half; he had to pick his next words carefully.

"That's not true, no one thinks you're a freak; and if they do then they're not worth bothering with, besides that guy you were with seemed to think you looked nice."

Lightning gave a small laugh, "For his well being it was a very good thing you showed up when you did; another five minutes and he would have been spending the rest of the night in a hospital."

This was not what Hope had wanted to here before what he was about to say.

Ah well, he thought, here it was, no going back now, "I think you look beautiful if that counts?" His voice sounded very far away.

There was a brief silence that seemed to stretch on for eons to Hope, who was looking dead ahead afraid to look to his right. He kept expecting a blow to the side of his head from Lightning's fist. Instead he felt a faint kiss on his cheek and his hair being ruffled; he went the brightest shade of red that it was possible to go.

"Thank you; come on we should head back, people are probably wondering where we've got to."

Lightning stood up and began walking back down towards the party; Hope thought he followed but he wasn't sure, it all felt like a very happy dream.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello again everyone, sorry for the delay in getting the chapter up, I was procrastinating on the PS4 for much of the weekend! Anyway, please enjoy the chapter and thanks for the reviews and views.**

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**Chapter 5: Miscommunication **

_1 Year Later_

It was funny how much could change and yet stay exactly the same Hope thought, sitting up and looking out of the window onto the centre of New Bodhum. The streets were bustling with people making their way through the day, most now fully accepting of the fact that this was their home, and they were going to carry on exactly like they had on Cocoon as much as possible.

This applied to himself, if on a smaller scale, as after the wedding he and Lightning had moved out of the beach side house. Serah and Snow had protested saying they didn't mind, but Hope and Lightning thought it was best to give the couple some room. And even though he didn't say it, Hope was getting a little tired of having a sofa for a bed; especially now he had grown.

He caught sight of his reflection in the window and barely recognised the person that was staring back. He was easily a couple of feet taller, but not only that, he had been in the Guardian Corps for nearly a year, after Lightning relented and allowed him to join at seventeen.

At first he had just found himself playing a small role, but as the need for more resources grew, so did his role. He became a part of the expeditionary force that was sent out on scavenging missions looking for anything useful in the ruins and wild lands of Pulse.

With this added responsibility came a new found confidence; in truth he barely resembled the young boy whose world had been turned upside down in the Vestige.

Hope yawned and stretched, enjoying his day off, as today was the annual bonfire, which meant that the Guardian Corps en masse took a holiday. Snow was extremely proud of the fact that the humble celebration he had started was now a recognised holiday that everyone took the day off for.

Hope glanced around his small bedroom looking for something to change into a found a white shirt and some jeans on his floor-drobe. It was amazing how lazy he had become, once he had a full time job; he just couldn't muster the enthusiasm to keep putting clothes away when he was only going to wear them again.

Hope was living in a small one bedroom apartment in the centre of the town; and although it wasn't the most spacious place, he did like the patio that looked out onto the beach, well you could see the beach if you stood on your tip toes.

Hope didn't bother to check the fridge for anything to eat; he already knew there was nothing in it. Instead he headed straight outside and made his way to a place he had often found himself in since he'd moved into his apartment.

The mid morning sun beat down on him as he walked onto the beach and into Labreau's bar, which now served food, fortunately for Hope.

"Morning Hope; what can I get for you this morning?" Labreau asked leaning on the counter.

"Just a coffee and whatever the cheapest variant of breakfast you can make is; I had to pay the rent yesterday and I don't have much left." Hope replied, leaning back in a chair.

"I would have thought the Corps paid their best and brightest well?" Labreau joked.

"Pfft! I wish; I had more money when I didn't have a job!" Hope snorted.

As he did so, another person entered the bar, her pink hair catching the sun as she strolled over to Hope's table. Hope immediately sprang to his feet.

"Captain!" He saluted in an exaggerated manner with a smirk on his face.

"At ease, private." Lightning returned the smirk, playing along.

"Do none of you in the Corps make anything for yourselves?" Labreau laughed.

"Are you kidding? With a slave driver like Lightning as my commanding officer it's a miracle I get time to breathe!" Hope exclaimed.

"I seem to recall you were the one who was begging for me to let you join; maybe you're just not as good as you think you are, I don't hear anyone else complaining." Lightning mused, sipping a cup of coffee.

"I'm the only one that will say anything, because everyone else is too terrified of you! Too bad for you I know you too well to be affected by the famous ice glare."

"Ice glare?" Lightning asked, narrowing her eyes.

"That's the one!" Hope laughed, as Lightning's expression went from cold to bemused.

"Wow, just listen to you two, you're like a couple!" Labreau sighed.

Not much could make Hope feel embarrassed anymore, but every time someone brought this subject up it stopped him in his tracks. The room fell deadly silent as both he and Lightning concentrated on their coffee waiting for the other to once again refute the claims.

This had been happening with increasingly regularity with people who didn't really know them, but this was the first time it was a person they both knew. While Hope would have liked nothing more than for it to be true, he also knew it was a long way from coming to pass.

Besides Serah, he was probably the person who was closest to Lightning, and she still very rarely opened up to him. It was just impossible to gauge what she was thinking; like now, unlike him, she didn't seem flustered by the question.

"Right, touchy subject, I've got some cleaning to do in the back so I'll leave you in peace." Labreau said, putting her hands up in the air.

Hope was thankful for this, because although he saw Lightning every day, it was usually as she was barking orders at him. They didn't get much time to just sit and be friends anymore, so he valued every opportunity that arose.

"That was awkward." Hope said.

"Sure was, I mean could you imagine it, me and you together."

It was like a dagger through his heart and it took quite a lot of will power for him not to slump to the floor. He put on his best fake smile and nodded in agreement, not trusting himself to speak. He finally knew that she didn't view him in that way it; shocked him how much it actually hurt.

"I err, I need to go and clean my apartment, I think I've got an inspection from the landlord in a few days and don't want to get kicked out." He laughed meekly.

"Don't want to end up on a couch again, huh?" Lightning replied.

Hope exited the bar, not really sure where he was going, only that he had to get away from Lightning. He was walking, with his head in the clouds, thoughts spinning in his head, so he didn't notice Snow carrying a pile of wood. He bumped into the taller man, causing him to drop the wood and both of them ended up on the floor.

"Hey! Watch it...Hope?" Snow's angry tone dissipated when he saw who it was.

"Sorry Snow, I was miles away." Hope apologised.

"Are you okay? You seem a little down." Snow inquired.

Hope was about to make up some excuse when a thought crossed his mind.

"Snow, when you first asked Serah to go out with you what did she say?" Hope asked.

"Ah, women trouble, say no more," Snow winked, "To be honest she flat out refused me; can you believe it?"

"So you just kept trying until she said yes?" Hope felt a flicker of light.

"It's not in my nature to give up! But I didn't keep pestering her, I found out what she liked, which was flowers at the time, and that got me a chance, from there it just took work and getting to know each other." Snow was looking past Hope at the sea, as if remembering some happy memory.

"Thanks Snow." Hope clapped him on the back.

"Hey, who's the girl?" Snow shouted, but Hope was already on his way forming a plan.

In truth, Hope had been thinking about him and Lightning more recently now that he felt he had a chance. He wasn't a kid anymore and in his year in the Guardian Corps, he had more than proved that he was capable of looking after himself.

He was beginning to think there was a chance Lightning would see him in a different way, and despite what she had said in the bar maybe she just needed to see how he felt. Snow had given him renewed belief, now all he and to do was act on it.

Hope found himself standing at the entrance to the New Bodhum School, waiting for Serah to finish for the day. The school was closed for the bonfire, but that didn't stop Serah from going in and preparing for a few classes. Eventually she exited the building, blinking at the brightness of the sun after being inside all day.

Even though Hope knew Serah worked at the school, he was always surprised to see her dressed so formally.

"Hey Hope, how're things?" Serah walked up and gave him a hug.

"Morning Miss Farron." Hope responded.

"I hear that enough! What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Well I was actually hoping you could help me with something?" He asked.

"Of course, what can I do to help?"

"It's kind of embarrassing, but what does Lightning like?"

"I'm not sure I understand?" Serah tilted her to the side in puzzlement.

"You know erm, like flowers or chocolate?" Hope replied, feeling more awkward by the second.

"Oh, OH! You and Lightning, it's too perfect." Serah was completely lost in her own vision clasping her hands together with a faraway look in her eyes.

Hope allowed her to remain in her daydream for a few minutes, before it became clear that he was going to have to do something, so he coughed.

"So, any thoughts?"

"Sorry Hope; just the idea of Lightning finally finding someone makes me relieved and happy at the same time. She's not the easiest person to get to know; well I suppose that's why you're here. She's always liked the colour yellow, and she likes blades." Serah scratched her chin.

"Right, so I should get her a yellow knife?" Hope sounded unconvinced.

"I know! Why not get her some of those yellow flowers that grow near the edge of town?" Serah suggested.

"I will, thanks."

"I can tell you're nervous, but don't worry, you're the best friend Lightning has ever had, and I'm sure that once she sees how you feel, she'll be delighted. She hasn't had anyone, besides me, looking out for her for so long that she forgets that it's ok to let people in." Serah looked like she wanted to go well almost as much as Hope did.

"I'll wait until the bonfire tonight; she always seems a little more comfortable there. I guess I'm off to pick some flowers!"

Hope thanked Serah again and made his way over to where he knew the flowers that Serah had told him of grew. He picked a handful and walked back to his apartment, where he out them in a jar with some water, so they wouldn't dry up before the bonfire came.

He sat on the sofa and flicked through some channels on the second hand TV Sazh had given him when he moved in, but nothing caught his attention. Instead he walked over to his standard issue gunblade on a stand in the corner and extended it I to its sword form.

It had felt like a rite of passage when he finally gained his own, remembering all those years ago when Lightning had told him it would be too heavy. No matter where he looked, something always brought his mind back to Lightning; she had been such an integral part of his life, he just hoped tonight wouldn't change that for the worse.

Hope finally dozed off in the mid afternoon sun and woke up to the night sky blanketing the town with darkness. He checked the clock and saw that the bonfire was due to start any minute, so he had a quick shower and got changed into a navy blue shirt and shorts.

He almost forgot the flowers, but grabbed them at the last minute, locking his door and walking towards the beach. The closer he got the more sluggish his steps became and eventually his pace fell so much he was barely moving.

It didn't feel like butterflies in his stomach, more like dragons, as it churned from the nerves. He spotted Serah, Snow, Sazh and Dajh sitting a little but away from the flames; Lightning was nowhere to be seen. Hope felt disappointed and relieved simultaneously and went to join the others.

"Here he is!" Sazh smiled as Hope sat down.

"What are the flowers for?" Dajh asked.

"Hey look at the colours in the fire!" Serah said trying to draw the attention away from Hope.

He caught her eye and smiled thankfully, which she returned. No sooner had Hope's stomach begun to settle down than the last member of their group appeared.

"Sorry guys, I was passed out at home; must be working too hard." Lightning explained sitting down.

Hope struggled to swallow, like he had a rock in his throat; maybe it was because of what he was about to do, but Lightning had never looked so beautiful or intimidating. She had a simple black summer dress on that was a stark contrast to her pale skin.

"Hey does anyone want anything to drink?" She asked getting up again; a few of the group accepted the offer and she took off towards the bar.

This was it, his chance to speak to her alone; Hope jogged, catching up to her.

"Do you mind if I talk to you alone?" Hope asked looking at his feet.

"Sure." Lightning agreed, shrugging her shoulders and following Hope to a quieter area.

"I have something I need to tell you." Hope began.

"If you need more time off, I'm sure we can sort something out." Lightning guessed incorrectly.

"What? No, it's not that. You see the thing is," this was the most difficult thing Hope had ever had to so in his life, "I think, I always have thought, that you are incredibly beautiful. Not only that but I really enjoy being around you and I would like the opportunity to get to know you even better."

He walked a little closer and looked into her bright blue eyes that were betraying nothing at the moment. She didn't say anything so he continued.

"It's taken me a long time to acknowledge this but I know for certain that I'm falling in love with you. With each passing day and the more time we spend together, I just like you even more."

They were so close now he could smell the familiar berry scented shampoo on her hair; he closed his eyes and leant in, but instead of meeting Lightning's lips, he was met by something stopping him coming closer. He opened his eyes to see her hand on his chest and a very conflicted look on her face.

"Hope, what, no, I'm sorry, no. I can't do this." She spoke in fits and starts.

Hope could hear a rushing in his ears, as if he was falling from a great height; he was thinking that this wasn't how it was supposed to go. Lightning said something else, but couldn't look him in the eyes, and once she'd finished talking, she lowered her hand and left him standing alone.

He vaguely remembered that he was still holding onto the flowers; he had forgotten to give them to her. His mind wasn't working straight; it was like a film that was stuck and it would only play one thing; Lightning standing in front of him saying no.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello all, here I am back again with another chapter for your enjoyment. Thanks to my loyal readers for the views and reviews, they provide a great source of inspiration to carry on with the story as fast as I can. Hope you all like the chapter.**

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**Chapter 6: Complications **

_1 Year Later_

Hope walked back into the compound just on the edge of the wilderness stretching beyond New Bodhum; he ached all over and was glad his shift was done for the day. He had been clearing out a section just west of the town that someone wanted to use as farmland; with all the wildlife it had taken well over a week to finish the job.

The Guardian Corps New Bodhum barracks were on the outskirts of the town, and provided shelter and food for any members, though they used it as a last resort as the food was terrible. Hope walked into the canteen, a very bare room with metal tables and a single cook who was always grumpy, and slouched onto a bench.

It was the day of the bonfire and he'd still come in to finish the job off, he told himself it was because of his work ethic, but truthfully he knew it was because he wanted to keep his mind off other things. It had been a year since the ill fated night when Lightning had rejected him, and it still stung any time he thought about it.

For the first time in its existence, Hope was dreading the bonfire, and giving serious consideration to skipping it. Even though he saw Lightning every day, as she was still his commanding officer, giving him orders to carry out, their contact outside of the Corps had been virtually nonexistent.

It was, as usual, difficult to tell what Lightning thought about the whole thing, as she still treated him the same in the Corps. Serah had been almost as upset as he had about how the events had unfolded, and regularly told him to try again, that Lightning had probably just panicked.

Hope couldn't bring himself to push it any further, not wanting to experience another bad memory like that. He had spent most of his waking hours working to take his mind off it, and slowly the pain had numbed to a dull ache, as long as he didn't dwell on it.

As he was sitting with his head resting on his hands he heard the door to the canteen open behind him. He didn't bother to check who it was, as he barely spoke to anyone outside of missions.

"Hey Hope." A bright voice chimed.

Hope looked up in time to see a girl with long dark hair and dark eyes, "Lily." Hope acknowledged the girl without moving.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" She seemed a little nervous.

"By all means." Hope waved his hand.

Lily and Hope had joined the Corps at the same time and was the same age as him, so they been on a few early missions together. She was always polite and cheerful, and pretty, he supposed, if you were into the dark hair and greens eye look.

"Ugh! I am absolutely shattered; it took us a whole day to bring down a Wyvern that was terrorising a town. I'm glad we get the rest of the day off for the bonfire; you know the guy who started it don't you?" Lily chattered.

"Yeah, Snow, he's a good guy once you get to know him." Hope finally said, after realising she had asked him a question.

"So are you going?" Lily asked shuffling in her seat.

"I'm not sure, it's kind of complicated." Hope replied.

"Oh I see; is it something to do with Captain Farron?" She asked sheepishly.

Hope's eyes almost bulged out of his head as he sat up and looked at Lily in disbelief.

"It's just I knew you were friends, and you seem to have drifted apart this past year. I'm sorry if I've said something I shouldn't have." She finished, embarrassed.

"No it's ok; yeah it is something to do with Lightning. I'm trying to forget that, but it's hard." Hope sighed.

"You should come to the bonfire tonight; I always have a good time with my friends there, maybe it'll help to cheer you up a bit." Lily was wringing her hands together.

"I'm not sure Lily; I'm not so great around new people with everything that went on in the past." Hope frowned, referring to the fact that some people he met were still terrified of his L'Cie past.

"I know what you were Hope, and what you did, I'm not scared I'm more grateful for everything you all did for us. No one is going to ask any questions, you'll see, I'd like it if you came." Lily had a shy smile on her face.

Hope suddenly realised what was going on, this was exactly the same situation he had found himself in a year before, only he was on the opposite side. As fatigued smile played across his mouth, as he was about to say no, then a little voice in his head said_, why not?_

"I'll think about it, where do you want to meet if I decide to go?" Hope asked, his voice brightening.

"How about the main road by the beach?"

"Great, well err maybe I'll see you later?" Hope stood up.

"I hope so." Lily's nodded.

She broke into a broad grin and pushed a strand of loose hair behind her ear, and the thought pulled at him again; she really was pretty. They both said goodbye to each other and went their separate ways.

Hope was walking back to his apartment with his hands in his pocket, completely lost in thought, so he didn't notice the person waiting for him at the entrance to his building. He looked up as he reached the door and saw Serah hesitantly smile at him.

Hope's heart sank; he couldn't take another talk from Serah urging him to try again, why couldn't she understand that it hadn't worked out the way any of them had wanted. He didn't want to give up on his feelings for Lightning, but if she didn't reciprocate them then he wasn't going to spend the rest of his life chasing after a lost cause.

"Hi Serah." Hope mustered a smile.

"Hey Hope, we haven't seen much of you recently, how have you been?"

"Yeah sorry, work has been nuts. Do you want to come in?"

"That would nice thanks."

Hope unlocked the glass door and walked up the stairs to his room, with Serah following him. He scrunched his face up at the state of his apartment, as he scanned the room, which had clothes scattered and dirty plates balanced precariously everywhere.

"Sorry about the mess." He apologised.

"Don't worry, I'll forgive you." Serah laughed.

"Would you like something to drink?" He asked, heading into the kitchen.

"I'm fine thank you." Serah said carefully choosing a place that wasn't covered in something dirty to sit down.

"I know why you're here, and honestly my answer is the same, it's not up to me to force Lightning to feel the same way about me as I do about her." Hope decided to try and get the conversation over with as quickly as possible.

"But I know that she does, she's just scared." Serah pleaded.

"Lightning, scared?" Hope sounded skeptical.

"That's the problem, she has this tough exterior that she doesn't like letting people through, but inside I know she's begging for someone to break it down. You might not realise it, but she's really missed being able to spend time with you outside of work."

"Then why can't she just tell me all this herself?"

"Because she's so stubborn, Lightning can't see what's in front of her own eyes."

"I'm not sure Serah, what if I ask her again, and she really did mean what she said? I'm not sure I could get over that for a second time; it's been hard." Hope looked down frowning.

"I believe that you and Lightning are meant to be together, all it's going to take is a bit of bravery. You're going tonight aren't you? Well I'll make sure she goes and you can talk to her there."

Serah stood up heading for the door, "Don't let me down, I'm counting on you to look after her."

Hope nodded solemnly, accepting that this was the only way he was going to get Serah to leave. With a curt nod, she walked out of the room and Hope watched as she exited onto the street below.

Hope had felt conflicted about going to the bonfire with Lily before, now he felt downright terrible.

"What am I going to do!?" He shouted at the ceiling.

_Lightning's Point of View_

"How many times do I have to tell you Serah? I'm not going, I'm too tired." Lightning was lying scowling on her bed in her house.

"I hardly see you anymore, so for me, please?" Serah begged, sitting on a long sofa.

"You're seeing me now." Lightning retorted.

"Oh come on, you've enjoyed it every year, so why stop now?"

"Those things are linked, I haven't enjoyed it every year, in fact last year was quite the opposite, and it's also the reason I don't want to go tonight."

"He really does love you, you know that right? And secretly I think you love him as well, you're just too scared to admit it."

Lightning didn't reply, wishing that Serah would just leave; she really didn't want to talk about this.

"Please, Claire."

It wasn't very often she heard that name anymore, so it caught her attention.

"If I say yes will you leave me alone?"

"Yep." Serah said cheerily.

"Fine. I'll see you later."

Lightning heard the door shut signaling she was alone again; and she let out a long sigh. In truth, she had thought about that night a lot over the past year, it was difficult not to as she saw Hope every day.

She knew two things, one, that she missed how things had been between them before that night and two, she knew what Serah had said was right. She had panicked; put her in front of a monster and she would attack with no fear, but ask her to talk about her feelings with one of the two people she cared most about in the world, that was a different matter.

She hadn't failed to notice how it had impacted on Hope; he was withdrawn and flinched when she spoke to him. It stung every time, and it was all her fault, she had let it drag on and now it was time to rectify that. It wasn't going to be easy, but tonight she was going to tell Hope how she really felt.

_Hope's Point of View_

Hope checked the clock one last time, and made up his mind, he was going to meet Lily where they had agreed and see where the night went from there. Surprisingly for this time of year on Pulse it was actually a little cooler than usual, so Hope put on a dark blue zipped jacket.

As he approached the edge of the main road, he saw Lily standing holding onto one of her arms looking up and down the street. She doesn't think I'm coming, Hope thought, getting closer. Lily caught sight of him and her face transformed from a look of doubt to happiness.

"Hey, I didn't think you were going to make it." She said shyly.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, I overslept."

"No problem. Shall we get going?" She asked.

Hope nodded and they both set off towards the roaring flame that had already been lit, which Hope could see through the trees.

Lily was wearing a black tank top and white shorts and Hope noticed she was shivering slightly as they headed along the beach so he took off his jacket.

"Here, put this on." He offered.

"Thank you." Lily's face flushed with embarrassment as she put on the jacket.

"Don't mention it." Hope smiled.

They eventually came to the bonfire and Hope saw a group of people he didn't recognise waving at Lily. She grabbed hold of his arm and led him over the group and introduced him to a mass of people whose name's he quickly forgot.

Hope actually found he was quite content to sit and listen to the group chat amongst themselves and realised it was the most relaxed he'd felt in a long time. He briefly thought of Serah and Lightning and a pang of guilt raced through him, and he promised himself he would go and find them before the night was over.

"So Hope, what was it like?" A boy with sandy coloured hair asked.

"Ryan, I told you, he doesn't like being asked about it!" Lily hissed.

"It's okay," Hope assured Lily, before turning to answer Ryan's question. "I spent the majority of the time so frightened I could barely move; then someone helped me and things changed, it was never fun, but I carried on, we all did."

The answer seemed to satisfy the group and their attention turned elsewhere, except for Lily, who he caught staring at him.

One by one, the group filtered away as the night drew to a close and the flames died down. Soon it was just Lily who was left with him on that part of the beach, and they began to make their way back into town.

"Thanks for tonight; I actually had a really good time." Hope said turning his back on the road.

"Me too, it's nice to see you smile. That person you said who helped you, that was Captain Farron wasn't it?" Lily asked.

"Yes, I really don't know what would have happened if it wasn't for Lightning."

Hope suddenly realised he had meant to go and find her; he cursed in his mind and hoped she were still on the beach. He was just about to make an excuse to leave Lily and say goodbye, when he turned back to her she began kissing him.

He was so stunned he didn't know what to do; a part of him thought it was nice, but he could also tell something was off. Lily grabbed a handful of his hair as he tried to pull away.

_Lightning's Point of View_

Serah told her for the hundredth time that night that he was here and probably waiting for her to go and find him, because he felt nervous of talking to her in front of the rest of them.

As the night dwindled on it became clear that this might be the case and as everyone started to head back, she went to look for Hope.

She and never felt nerves like it before in her life, but was determined that she would go through with it. It was Hope, someone she had to come to know, trust and, could now admit, possibly love.

The beach was virtually deserted now, but she walked round the dying embers in the bonfire, casting weak shadows onto the sand and thought she saw someone over by the trees.

She smiled as the moon shone down on very familiar silver hair and she began to quicken her pace. Then as she was just about to break from the trees, she saw Hope wasn't alone, in fact the reason he hadn't come to find her wasn't because he was nervous, it was because he was otherwise engaged in kissing a dark haired girl.

Lightning couldn't look away; it felt like a lead weight had dropped in her stomach and she felt a burning sensation in her eyes. She tried to reason that it wasn't any of her concern what Hope did, she had refused him and he had clearly moved on, but the wave of shock and sadness told her otherwise, it mattered a lot. She decided she'd seen enough and turned, stalking back home.

_Hope's Point of View_

"Enough!"

Hope yanked himself away from Lily, and turned just in time to see a flash of pink hair disappearing into the trees; _Oh no. _He started to go after Lightning, but Lily grabbed his arm, tugging him back. It was too late anyway, he knew she had seen.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Under the Night Sky**

_1 Year Later_

It had been a really tough year; harder in many ways than his time as a L'Cie, Hope thought, as he was meandering through the streets of New Bodhum. He'd had arguments with people he never expected to, and found friendships tested to breaking point.

A few days after last years' bonfire, days that Hope had spent fruitlessly banging on Lightning's door or trying to speak to her at the Corps, Lightning had put in for promotion, which had been granted. She now ran her own garrison of the Guardian Corps at an advanced location trying to push out further into the wild lands of Pulse.

Hope had not spoken a word to her in more than a year and no matter how much he tried to spin it, it was his entire fault. Every time he played the memory back, he wished it would end differently and he would tell Lily, 'No thanks,' and go to the bonfire with his friends as normal.

He may not have spoken to Lightning in a long time, but that didn't mean he had spent any time with Lily. In fact it was quite the opposite; she had been offended about he had reacted, trying to run after Lightning, so their contact had been minimal. Not that Hope minded, the majority of the blame lay with him, but he still resented what Lily had done.

Hope suddenly took in his surroundings, realising he was near the school, and quickly turned around and headed in a different direction. He had expected Lightning to be angry, but as she had disappeared, Serah had taken up the mantle of telling him exactly what she thought of the situation.

In short, she placed the whole blame on him, and said she had never seen Lightning so down about anything. In the few days before she moved, she had completely shut herself down, just like she had when their parents had died. Serah had lost regular contact with Lightning, and that just added to her fury; Hope had felt two feet tall while she was yelling at him, and could imagine what it was like for the kids at the school.

Even the usually laid back pair of Sazh and Snow had been a little short with him, before he had managed to explain what had happened. They had both decided it was bad mistake, but nothing more, and forgiven him, whereas Serah was still seething, and the only time they spoke was when she yelled at him some more.

If Hope had been doubtful about going to the previous years' bonfire, he was certainly going to skip this one. There would no point in going, as his appearance only ever put Serah in a bad mood, and he doubted whether that would make the night enjoyable for the rest of his friends.

He knew he was moping, but he couldn't help it, so he decided to try and brighten his day. The beach was empty except for the pile of wood that had been stacked in preparation for the bonfire that evening.

Hope entered Labreau's bar and sat on a stool by the counter, aware that there was no one to serve him in the vicinity. He eyed the various bottles lined behind the bar, all containing liquids of different colours, trying to decide which one to have.

"Morning Hope, you're in early; do you want the usual?" Labreau appeared from outside.

"No thanks, what's the strongest thing you've got there?" He pointed at the collection of drinks.

"It's a little early to be starting on that isn't it?" Labreau mused.

"Hey, it's my day off; it's not like I'm going to turn into an alcoholic, I don't have time with work!" Hope tried to laugh off the suggestion.

"Hmmmm I'm doing this against my better judgment but okay, try this one."

She grabbed a thin necked bottle that contained a clear liquid, and poured it into a glass, passing it across to Hope.

Hope twisted the glass in his hand swilling its contents briefly, and then downed it in one gulp. The liquid burned as it went down causing Hope to pull his face in disgust, which Labreau laughed at.

"Wow that tastes like fuel!" Hope said shaking his head.

"People asking for that kind of drink, at this time of the day, aren't usually picking it for its taste!" Labreau reasoned.

"Ah well, fill it up again, maybe it will taste a bit better second time round."

It didn't taste better the second, third or fourth time, but by then Hope was no longer paying attention to the taste.

"So... I... said to her, to Lily, you're a witch... and she slapped me." Hope explained to no one in particular.

"Right, well I think you've definitely had enough, I'll call Yuj and ask him to help you get home." Labreau was regretting allowing Hope to have a drink, considering the state he'd got himself in. She gave him a glass of water and waited for Yuj to arrive.

Yuj appeared shortly afterwards and helped Hope walk home; Hope wasn't actually in too bad of a state, the fresh air and the water had improved his situation. Yuj asked Hope if he wanted him to stay for a while, but he waved the offer away and went to lie down on his bed, drifting off to sleep.

"Hope! Hope, wake up!" The voice seemed very far away, but the hands that were shaking him didn't.

Hope winced as pain lanced through his head, why had he decided to drink early in the morning?!

"Come on, wake up!" The voice sounded closer now.

He groggily opened his eyes, and the first thought that came to him was that this had to be a dream. Standing in front of him were Serah, Snow and Sazh, all with worried expressions on their faces; Serah was just about to shake him again when he sat up.

"I'm up, please, no more shaking!" Hope pleaded.

"Have you been drinking?!" Serah asked accusingly.

"I just had a quick drink this morning, it is my day off. Anyway, how did you get in? And what are you doing here?" Hope asked, as the pain resided from his head.

"You gave us a spare key, remember?" Snow said, holding a key up triumphantly.

"Snow!" Serah shouted.

"Right, right, more important things." He agreed.

"This morning I called Lightning to see if she was going to come back for the bonfire, and I got no answer, then a few minutes later I got this message." Serah hysterically waved her arms explaining.

Hope then found a phone shoved into his face, and grabbed it just in time to hear a series of loud bangs and a scream, before the message cut out.

"Sounds like someone is in trouble," Hope mumbled before piecing everything together, "that came from Lightning's phone?"

Serah just nodded, her face looked like she was torn between deciding whether to cry or to smash something.

"We came here as soon as we heard it; you know where Lightning is stationed, so we thought you could lead us there and we could see what has happened." Snow said.

"Okay, yeah, give me two minutes to get my stuff ready." Hope's mind was no longer clouded, it was like a fog had lifted and in its place was a clear sense of what he needed to do.

"Really? You'll do it?" Serah sounded surprised.

"Of course, why?" Hope was puzzled.

"Well it's just after how we, I especially, have treated you recently, I thought it would take longer to persuade you." Serah sounded ashamed.

"Come on Serah, I know we've been through better times, but I'd do anything for you." Hope said.

"I'm sorry, thank you!" Serah launched at Hope and hugged him.

Hope slid out of Serah's arms and picked up a back pack and filled it with water and some food, before picking up his gunblade and putting it in a holster on his trousers. Within minutes he was scanning the apartment to see if he had forgotten anything, but nothing sprang to mind.

"Okay that should do it." Hope said turning to face the group.

"Lead on." Sazh pointed to the door.

"Wait, have you all got something to defend yourselves with? We don't have magic anymore and it's dangerous out there." Hope explained.

"I'm ready." Sazh raised his trusty pistols that had served him so well as a L'Cie.

"Me too." Snow just ground his fists together, causing Hope to shake his head.

"Erm, I haven't." Serah shuffled nervously.

"I knew I kept this round for a reason."

Hope rummaged through a wardrobe and pulled out his old Aerowing boomerang, passing it to Serah.

"Remember, getting hurt is a lot harder to deal with now we can't just use magic to solve everything, so be careful; now let's go find Lightning."

He thought about going to the barracks to see if anyone was available to help, but decided they would all be enjoying their day off. He led the group to the outskirts of New Bodhum, which was surrounded by dense forest.

"This will be slow going as the ground is quite marshy, so keep your eyes peeled." Hope informed them, receiving a nod off each of his comrades.

Hope hadn't really stopped to think about the fact that he was leading a group of civilians across one of the most dangerous natural locations on the planet, and to top it off, they had no idea what they would find. What if they got there and people, including Lightning, needed serious medical attention. Hope shook the negative thoughts out his mind; this would be difficult enough without distracting himself with worst case scenario thoughts.

He cleared his mind and stepped into the forest, leading, with Snow following last and Sazh and Serah in the middle. Hope was quickly sweating, as the heat and humidity amongst the trees took its toll.

They had been walking for about half an hour when he heard Snow cry out in anguish; Hope spun readying his gunblade in one fluid movement ready to strike at want was attacking Snow. Instead Snow was gawking at a large spider that had dropped onto his shoulder. Hope relaxed and walked over and brushed it off.

"That thing was huge! Man this place is a nightmare." Snow exhaled.

"We haven't gone one mile yet, you could probably get back if you're too scared to go on?" Hope suggested.

"Hey, I'm not scared of anything!" Snow chimed, clapping his hands together.

"It looked that way, you dealt with that spider really well." Sazh joked.

"Come on guys, we haven't got time for this." Serah said urgently.

A couple of hours later and the group had reached a clearing in the forest, with a tree stump to sit on, so Hope suggested they take a break, passing a bottle of water around. Before long they were on their feet again, splashing through the collections of water on the forest floor and brushing leaves out of their eyes.

Hope knew they were reaching the edge of the forest and stopped to speak to the others.

"Just beyond that tree line is where the forest ends and we walk out onto the Archylte Steppe. Usually we send an entire squad on treks across the Steppe, because it's where the bigger animals like to play."

"Yeah I remember those adamantoise things!" Snow said.

"Yeah and you've got no steelguard to protect yourself with this time big guy." Sazh said clapping the other man on the back.

"They shouldn't be a problem; as long as we don't get too close to them they won't bother us. The station where Lightning is at is a straight shot right across the Steppe, so I think the best thing to do is to stick together and move as quickly and quietly as possible."

"I hope she's alright." Serah whispered.

"We'll worry about that when we get there; remember, be quiet; most of the animals will leave us alone if we don't disturb us. On the count of three, stick close behind me and move as swiftly as you can."

Hope held up his hand and pulled down three fingers and broke out of the trees onto the vast plains of the Steppe. He had seen it many times over the years, but the sheer size of it always managed to overwhelm him. Hope could see the outer fence of the station from where he was, and it all seemed intact, which was a good sign.

Hope didn't have long to take his surroundings however, as Snow, who had been leaning on a branch, slipped and snapped it clean off the tree, knocking all four of them over. As Hope was on the bottom of the pile, he couldn't assess whether Snow's mishap had caused any damage; that was until he heard a loud roar.

He crawled from under his friends, and locked eyes with a behemoth that the group had disturbed from its sleep over in the shade of a big rock. It was now on its feet glaring at them, through vicious red eyes, and slowly opened its mouth to reveal row upon row of razor sharp teeth.

"Ugh guys we have a problem." Hope whispered, gingerly getting to his feet and nodding over to the creature.

"That is not good! What are we going to do?" Sazh asked, readying his pistols.

"No, they're too loud, they'll just attract more trouble, only use them if we're desperate." Hope instructed Sazh.

Hope gauged the distance in his head between them and the station, and decided it was all or nothing.

"I think we're going to have to run." Hope said.

"Isn't doggy over there faster than us though?" Snow asked cautiously.

"Probably, but maybe we can catch it off guard. Snow stick close to Serah; you two go first, me and Sazh will take the rear in case it follows." The three nodded in unison, all with grim determination.

"Ready, go!" Hope hissed.

With that all four of them began sprinting towards the gates of the station; the behemoth remained rooted to its position for the meanwhile.

"Heh, looks like it isn't up for the chase!"

No sooner had Snow uttered the words, than the behemoth began bounding after them.

"You had to say something didn't you!" Sazh huffed while trying to run faster.

Hope looked at the gates and back to the behemoth and knew they weren't going to reach them in time; the creature was closing the gap too quickly.

"Keep running, I'm going to try and distract it." Hope shouted.

He spun around and turned his gunblade into its rifle function, firing a few shots into the oncoming behemoth, but it didn't seem too perturbed and kept up its charge. Hope heard another volley of shots and a boomerang go sailing past his head, catching the creature off guard, causing it to stop.

"You didn't seriously think we were going to leave you, did you?" Sazh said joining Hope's side, with Serah and Snow in close attendance.

"What's the plan? We can't out run the thing." Serah asked.

"Just leave this to me! Yu guys distract it and try and lead it over to that big tree." Snow pointed to a single large tree with lots of branches.

"Are you going to explain your plan?" Hope asked.

"You'd just think I was crazy." Snow said running towards the tree.

The other three stared after Snow, with bemused expressions, before turning their attention back towards the behemoth. It had recovered from their earlier attack and was now getting ready for another charge.

"Guess we should do what Snow says, unless anyone has a better idea?" Hope asked.

The other said nothing, so Hope fired a few more shots and started moving towards the tree. Sazh did likewise and Serah threw the Aerowing again, which the creature dodged beginning to run towards them.

The three friends had gathered by the tree, but they couldn't see Snow, and the behemoth was now traveling at a fast pace straight for them. At the last second all three dived out of the way and Hope saw Snow drop from the tree onto the behemoth's back.

The creature was incensed and started to wildly shake it's head to remove Snow, who was grimly holding on. The creature was running in circles, completely unaware of its surroundings and didn't notice it was heading straight for the big rock it had been lying under earlier. At the last second Snow jumped from its back as the behemoth ran head first into the rock.

Snow landed heavily and the others raced over to him; the behemoth was completely unconscious by the rock so they were safe again.

"What exactly was your plan?!" Hope said, helping his friend up.

"I'm not sure, but it worked!" Snow exclaimed, before being bundled over by Serah in a hug.

"You moron! You could have died!" She cried.

"Hey it's okay, I'm fine. Now let's go and find Lightning." He replied, helping Serah back to her feet.

The group reached the station without any further problems and entered through unlocked front door, which Hope thought was strange. Inside the only light came from small windows in the ceiling, giving the station an abandoned feeling.

They slowly made their way through the corridors, not meeting anyone along the way; there were also no signs of a struggle. The only sounds were the footsteps of the group as they drew closer to the heart of the building.

"It's kind of creepy, huh?" Snow whispered.

"Yeah, we should have seen someone by now." Hope replied.

They finally heard voices coming from behind a door, which was slightly ajar, with a ray of light streaming through. Serah was about to march straight into the room, but Hope caught her arm and stopped her.

"We don't know who's in there; we should get ready for a fight." Hope held his gunblade, and began lowering his fingers.

When he dropped the last one he burst thought the door with the others all behind him, ready to block an attack. Instead he saw a group of bemused members of the Guardian Corps sitting around a table, which held a birthday cake and scraps of wrapping paper.

Leaning against the wall, most shocked of all, was Lightning; for a moment no one spoke or moved. Hope eventually lowered his gunblade and turned to Serah.

"Well at least she's okay!" Hope said.

"Claire Farron, what is going on!?" Serah stormed.

A couple of the recruits sitting round the table sniggered upon hearing Lightning's real name, but they quickly stopped after a look from the pink haired girl.

"I was just going to ask you the same thing!" Lightning asked quizzically, placing her hands on her hips.

"We heard the message you left, with the screaming, and thought something had happened to you." Serah replied.

"Screaming? Oh that must have been Alicia; it's her birthday, so a couple of the recruits wanted to throw a surprise birthday for her. When she came in she screamed as I was trying to phone you back." Lightning explained.

"Why didn't you try and phone again?!" Serah asked incredulously.

"My phone ran out of battery." Lightning shrugged.

"Wait, if that's the case, why is the front door unlocked and why are all of the lights off?" Hope asked.

"Oops!" A dark haired boy covered his mouth.

"You forgot to lock the door again Lucas!" Lightning's eyes flared in anger before calming down, "and the lights are off because we were just packing up ready to head back to New Bodhum."

At this explanation all four of the friends fell into chairs around the room.

"So you heard the message and came running to rescue me thinking something had happened?" Lightning asked.

"Of course we did!" Hope exclaimed.

At this Lightning began to laugh, quietly at first, then it caught on and everyone in the room was in hysterics. After a few minutes and everyone had calmed down, the group had something to eat and drink. Lightning came and found Hope who was standing at the entrance looking out onto the Steppe.

"So did you have much trouble getting here?" Lightning asked.

"No not really, we only had to fight off a behemoth!" Hope joked.

"I can't believe you did this, you could have been killed!" Lightning shook her head.

"It didn't really cross my mind; once Serah said you were in trouble there was only one thing that mattered, and that was making sure you were okay."

"I didn't realise I still meant that much to you." Lightning replied quietly.

"Listen Light, there are some things that I need to say, so I need you to just sit and listen while I tell you," Lightning nodded staring intently into Hope's eyes, "I really hate how things have been between us these past couple of years; I know it's been all my fault, I shouldn't have pressured you first and then last year, well... I have no feelings for _her; _she just caught me off guard. I know that doesn't make it better, but it meant nothing to me and I haven't spoken to her since."

Lightning still sat silently, so Hope continued, "You will always be the most important person in my life, and even if you don't feel the same way about me, I'd like us to be able to be friends again, at least. I guess what I'm trying to say, is I'm sorry."

Hope finished and let out a long sigh, and turned to look at Lightning, who appeared to be about to say something but before she was given the chance, Snow draped his arms around both her and Hope.

"Well now we've got everything sorted, how about we set off for home; we've got a bonfire to get to!" He said.

"We sure have." Lightning agreed, surprising Hope.

The group was joined by the remaining members of the Guardian Corps from the station, and their journey back across the Steppe was much less eventful. They reached New Bodhum just as night fell, all of them going their separate ways to get ready for the bonfire.

Hope had decided he would go, not knowing when he would get to spend time with Lightning outside of work again. He had a quick shower and threw on a change of clothes, before heading out to meet up with his friends.

Hope had just stepped onto the beach and was looking for any sign of his friends when Lightning appeared from nowhere.

"Hope, I'm glad I found you, I think we need to finish the conversation from earlier." Lightning said.

Hope's mouth had gone completely dry and he was finding it difficult to speak so he just nodded. With that Lightning beckoned him to follow her and took them to a secluded spot on the beach.

"I've been thinking all day about what you said and what I've wanted to say in return, so here it is. Firstly, you have nothing to apologise for; I rejected you and regardless of whether you meant it or not, you shouldn't feel bad about the incident with Lily. I reacted badly and never gave you a chance to explain anything." Lightning was speaking quickly, avoiding Hope's gaze.

"I thought I was over shutting people out, but that night where you told me how you felt, I seized up and panicked. Nobody has ever said anything like that to me before and I hadn't got a clue what to say, so I took the easy option; I pushed you away. I never meant to hurt you..."

"Light it's okay, honestly; I've come to accept that you don't feel the same way, and like I said earlier, I'd rather keep you as friend than lose you altogether." Hope cut Lightning off.

"But that's the thing, I didn't know how I felt; and when it was too late, I realised that I do have feelings for you. We've known each so long now, that not having you in my life is something I don't want to deal with." Lightning was now looking at Hope smiling gently.

"You have feelings for me?" Hope was frozen in place.

"More than that, I'm like everyone else, I just want to be happy; and you're the person who does that more than anyone else, you make me smile." Lightning blushed.

Hope suddenly, found he could move again, and slowly stepped forward, taking Lightning's face in his hands. He leant in and slowly began to kiss her, closing his eyes and smiling at how amazing it felt to finally be able to do it. After all the times he had day dreamed about this happening, the moment didn't let him down. The kiss became deeper and Lightning moved her hands and gripped Hope's hair.

Eventually they broke apart and stared at each, both of them with wide smiles on their faces.

"I love you Light." Hope said, tenderly pushing a strand of pink hair behind her ear.

"You know, I think I might just love you to." Lightning smiled and they leant in, kissing each other again.

"We should probably go and find the others, before they send out a search party." Hope suggested.

"Good idea, now that you've all got the search party routine nailed down they could be here any second." Lightning smirked.

Hope laughed and as he started to walk, Lightning took his hand in her own and linked their fingers. Hope thought his chest was going to explode he was so happy.

It didn't take long to find the rest of the group, and when Serah saw both of them holding hands she let out a cry of excitement and tackled them, shouting 'I told you so' over and over.

Sazh hugged and congratulated the pair, and Snow just winked at Hope, causing him to go even redder in the face than he thought was humanly possible. The group all sat down and watched the flames roar, before someone began to set off a range of brightly coloured fireworks.

As the colours erupted, Hope looked around at his friends and his eyes finally rested on Lightning, who he discovered was watching him instead of the fireworks.

They kissed briefly and as they pulled away, Hope thought of all the memories he had gotten over the last few years. And now, watching the fireworks reflect in the eyes of the girl he loved, he decided, this was his favourite one of all.

**The End**

* * *

**So I have come to the end of my story, I very much hope all who have read it enjoyed doing so as much as I did writing it. Thank for you for all of the reviews and comments; until next time, goodbye. JB.**


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